Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Miscellaneous Stuff of Varying Interest

Miscellaneous stuff that is interesting, but too short for a post of its own:

The University of East Anglia paid £113,000 ($182,000; €138,000) to an outside consultancy group (=PR company) to manage the 2009 Climategate episode. (Incidentally, that firm's managing director was arrested last summer in the News of the World phone hacking scandal (where he was earlier an editor).

Researchers suggest violent childhood abuse may affect telomeres -- the end caps of DNA that may influence aging and disease. Another researcher says "there's a lot of doubt in the field." No comments on how this might affect political party affiliation.

"Just because the eco-collapse narrative remains the same doesn’t mean it won’t eventually come true.

The problem for the green traditionalist is that this redundant message has lost its power. There have been too many red alerts, accompanied by too many vague, screechy calls to action. Today, the green traditionalist is like a parent who incessantly yells at his child to behave–or else. The parent grows angrier and increasingly frustrated when the child inevitably tunes him out."

This is a couple of months old, but it's a great Peter Sinclair video of ocean scientist Josh Willis succinctly explaining where the sea level rise went. Andhewasright, as the recent surge in sea level shows.